The Nissan Cherry featured the front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout. The Cherry line includes the E10 and F Nissan's direct successor was the Nissan Pulsar worldwide. In Japan, the Cherry was exclusive to Nissan Cherry store locations.
On the UK market, it debuted just before the company's surge in sales, which saw it sell just over 6, cars in and more than 30, the following year. Although its successor was launched in , such was the original model's popularity on the UK market that it was not replaced there until Originally, before combining with Nissan Motors , the Prince Motor Company plan of development was to mass-produce a front-engine, front-wheel drive car.
Subsequent to the Prince and Nissan merger of , the Cherry was released in as Nissan's first front-wheel drive car instead. In Asian markets there was also a " Cherry Cab " cabover truck model C20 , which was closely related to the Nissan Sunny β it was also marketed as the "Sunny Cab".
The E10 generation featured four-wheel independent suspension. Although the car used a Nissan engine, the powertrain dated back to Prince's original concept β which was in essence a copy of the "transmission-in-sump" layout pioneered by the British Motor Corporation in the Mini.
Consequently, this gave the E10 a very distinctive transmission whine which was characteristic of this mechanical configuration. The sporting Japanese domestic market Cherry X-1 model featured twin-carburetted A12T engine with dual-sidedraft Hitachi carburettors. The names "Cherry" and "Datsun " were also used in advertising, however the Datsun name was associated with the early Nissan Sunny and Nissan Bluebird.
